Direct peace talks between the Justice and Equality Movement and the government is expected to start Wednesday in the Qatari capital Doha. Reuters News Agency reported that the Justice and Equality Movement said that April's legislative and presidential elections should be postponed so that the group and the millions suffering in Darfur from a seven-year rebellion could participate.
The African Union announced that the National Congress Party has signed the Electoral Code of Conduct in Khartoum. In a released press statement, the Union said that the voluntary code facilitates self regulation for the political parties in the upcoming elections.
Nigerian Acting President, Goodluck Jonathan, has declared a state of emergency in Plateau State following Sunday’s ethnic violence in which at least 500 people were killed in villages near the central city of Jos. Security forces were on high alert to prevent any retaliatory attacks in neighbor States.
Nigeria 's acting President Goodluck Jonathan has ordered security forces to prevent more weapons being brought into the area around the city of Jos. More than 100 people, many of them women and children, are believed dead after attacks in the area on Sunday. Witnesses said the mainly Christian villages had been attacked from the surrounding hills by men with machetes.